Many products, such as candy, dry cereal, and certain types of cookies and crackers are sold in flexible bags. Once the bags have been opened, however, the bags are often not easily re-closed, with attendant spilling of product, loss of freshness, contamination, and similar problems. One product which has been proposed to overcome this problem is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,332 B1. In this arrangement, a bag is secured within a box, with a line of weakness in the bag defining a bag opening aligned with an opening in the box. Further, the box opening may be selectively closed or opened to disperse product.
While this arrangement is satisfactory for products in bags mounted in boxes, such as a dry cereal, it is not applicable to products sold in bags without enclosing boxes, and requires special manufacturing arrangements to secure the bag within the box.